Hello all!! My last post being slightly dull and more on the "Leah was a bit homesick" mode, I am happy to report that things have gone on the up and up! Temuco ended up being not that great. A girl in my group got her wallet stolen along with some earings she had bought. But she got her credit card cancelled right away and her mom wired her money. Hay no problema. We took a minibus to the Chol Chol Foundation (www.cholchol.org) to hear about the foundation, which now today helps the Mapuche women better their lives through making weavings and selling them for fair trade prices. Very cool, and my little desricption did NOT do them justice, but if you´re interested in that, you can go to the website... which I´m pretty sure I gave you the correct one. The Mapuche are a BIG deal down here. They were a NEVER conquered indigenous groups who adapts to their sorroundings (is that spelled right....?). You can go to www.mapuche.info and read up on them if you would like. It´s worth a look into since it´s such a different situations to how dealt with the Native Americans in the states, AND in the countries around Chile as well.
Okay, moving on from the Mapuche...
So we took the bus from Temuco to Villarrica on Wednesday (I believe... the days are running together). And all we had to do is step off the bus, take a huge breath of unpolluted air, and let out the stress of Temuco. It is BEAUTIFUL here! It´s right next to Lago Villarrica (Lake Villarrica) with a VOLCANO right next to that! Seriously. Way cool! We stumbled upon a chocolotería with the neatest little chocolate owner ever. He gave us free chocolate after we finished our delicious tortas and the BEST hot chocolate! Super sweet man. Anyway, yesterday we went to Pucón and did some class stuff and also checked out the town. I also decided to try a Chilean meal that is loved, which is called una "completo", which is a hot dog covered in tomatoes, guacamole, and mayo. It sounded fine enough, but I made the mistake of ordering the completo gigante.... which was about the size of my arm... not even exaggerating. I ate about half of the weird tasting mess before I felt like I was going to be sucked into abyss known as obesity. But Chileans LOVE it, so I try it. As a friend of mine said on this trip, "If the national dish is a hot dog, you kind of have to wonder..."
Anyway, after our little class time meeting with ecologist and a Mapuche writer, we split up to do our ethnographies, which is going to different places in Chile and getting a sense of the place in a couple days. I am doing my ethnography on Villarrica with my friend, Erica... which we are finishing today before 4:30 so we can catch a bus to Osorno, and hopefully from there we can get another bus to Bariloche, Argentina! It´s a grand scheme, but we´re hoping for the best. If that doesn´t work out, we want to go south to maybe Chiloé, which is an island where all the evacuated people from Chitan where the volcano errupted are going. And they have a penguin colony on the island! ¡Muy interesante! Anyway, we´ll see what ends up happening. We have to be back in Valparaíso by Monday night, which is located all the way towards Santiago. CRAZY!
OH! So, I have been still getting into good conversations with people in my group! It´s such an awesome situation to be in, because I get to hear where they come from, and they have no choice but to hear what I believe in! YAY! Keep praying that their hearts and minds will be open and willing to hear exactly what Jesus came for, and that I get more opportunities to share with them. It´s hard since I´m not around all of them for 4 days, but I AM with Erica and I´m excited to maybe talk to her more and get more of a sense of where she is coming from. After this weekend, I only get 4 days with them! So sad! BUT, we have been making plans to get together back in the States and such. So, if not here, hopefully back in Durango. But keep praying! Seeing God provide opportunities has seriously been the best part of my trip so far!
So, a week from today I´ll be in Peru! I can´t believe I´ve been here for almost 2 weeks. I can´t believe that I have over 3 weeks left before I go home as well. I guess we´ll see what happens from here, huh? Well, I better get back to doing my ethnography, even though this internet/phone shop was a good place to be in. A lot of people have been coming in for me to observe. What luck! Anyway, until next time....
Vaya con Dios,
Leah =)
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